Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Wow, am I glad I got this pit remover! I have two dwarf sour cherry trees, and this year, actually also last year, they produced a truck load of fruit. For the first 10 pounds, I had not yet gotten this little machine, so I did them by hand, literally. And my poor thumbs were also literally sour when I was finished pitting them, after about 6 hours of labor. In comes the Leifheit. Last night, I pitted 20 pounds in 2 hours. The pitting itself is a cinch. One has to practice a little at first to get the hang of it. First off, do not forget to take off the card board tab around the puncher and place one of the rubber tabs in the provided slot on the machine, before using it for the first time! Setting the machine on a somewhat higher surface (I used a cutting board), will help, as the shoot is placed a little low, which makes it hard to find a proper bowl in which to catch the cherries. Also, I prefer to keep a hand on the cherries in the hopper, to avoid having them all bunch up in the bottom, where the puncher strikes. Sour cherries are very fragile and soft, so they will really get pressed together down there. If you do sweet cherries, such as Bing cherries, for instance, that won't happen. Well, once I had my 'feeding' technique figured out, everything else was just a cinch. I got a good rhythm going and had all those cherries punched in no time. One has to watch, though, that fruit won't slip through 'un-punched', if you do not want to find a pit in the jam later! That is why I control the flow of the fruit into the shoot with my hand. Good luck finding and retrieving an escaped, un-punched cherry in the bowl if it slipped through, lol! All in all, it takes way longer to wash the cherries, and take off their stems, than it takes to punch the pits out with the Leifheit. I am very happy that I got it! My thumbs already thank me for it! Clean-up was easy, too. Just taking the handle apart, rinsing under flowing water with a soft brush around the puncher, washing the container and top, drying it all, and done. Make sure to store the little rubbery pads so you don't lose them! When re-assembling the puncher into the handle, do NOT put the part down on a surface and push the puncher in. I say this, because the little, very hard and sharp punching crown at the end of the shaft sticks out further than the handle, and it will damage any surface it strikes when it comes down with a thud and a vengeance. So rather do it 'in the air' just by holding it with both hands. Like everything Leifheit makes, this machine is built very well and will last many years! If you do cherries, this is a must-have! I have added some photos for better demonstration, I hope you'll enjoy them. If you found this review helped you, then please let me know! Thank you!